Yahoo Finance This creepy Japanese robot's movements are controlled via neural network
If you felt as though you were seeing the future when watching the 2015 science fiction thriller “Ex Machina” – you were right, and it looks like that future is nearly here.
(Google)If you felt as though you were seeing the future when watching the 2015 science fiction thriller “Ex Machina” – you were right, and it looks like that future is nearly here.
A robot called “Alter” that can make eerily natural movements will be on display in Japan’s National Science Museum for a week, according to Engadget.
The android, with its human-like face and exposed robotic body, looks frighteningly similar to the robot played by Alicia Vikander in "Ex Machina."
It relies on an embedded neural network to form its movements, which give it the appearance that it is very much alive.
According to Engadget, the technology relies on 42 pneumatic actuators, as well as a “central pattern generator.”
The CPG has a neural network that mimics the neurons found in the central nervous systems of animals, like humans.
This neutral network allows the Alter to come up with its own movement patterns, based on sensors that pick up proximity, temperature and humidity.
The end result is that Alter moves its arms, head and adjusts its postures based on its own decisions.
For example, if its proximity sensors pick up a lot of people nearby, its torso may shudder in response.
“Alter doesn’t look like a human. It doesn’t really move like a human. However, it certainly has a presence,” Kohei Ogawa, a professor at Osaka University’s intelligent robotics laboratory, told Engadget.
“Until now, making androids talk or interact for 10 minutes was an incredible amount of hard work – simply to program something to react for that long. Alter, moving for itself, can do so easily.”
And in what seems straight out of a sci-fi horror flick, Alter can also 'sing.'
The nightmarish melody is apparently how it vocalizes its finger movements.
The robot was built by robotics researchers at labs in Tokyo and Osaka, and will be on display until August 6.
Then it’ll be returned to the lab. We can only hope that there isn’t a sudden onset of unexplained power outages there.
